


You've Got to Walk the Walk

by evilsami



Series: 30 Day Writing Challenge [5]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Everyone Is Alive, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-07-13 00:49:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7131389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evilsami/pseuds/evilsami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek is a Lit. student just starting his third semester.  He's a cat person, and he's got two best friends that like to make his life difficult.</p><p>Stiles is super attractive, and does not condone irresponsible pet ownership.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You've Got to Walk the Walk

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like a lot of you are going to be thinking that summary is misleading. It is. I'm only a little sorry.
> 
> So this is one of my 'I'm going to play in this verse but not really explain the changes, just figure it out yourselves' fics. But this is also, like, full on AU, so. I didn't really even go into Stile's character that much, because I was focusing on Derek.
> 
> Anyway. Tell me what you think in the comments, please. 
> 
> Day 5 of my 30-Day Writing Challenge!

Derek Hale meets Stiles Stilinski at the off-campus apartments he’s moved into, two weeks before the semester starts.

He’d say it was bound to happen eventually, but that’s not quite true. He only meets the guy accidentally, and it’s totally not his fault that he comes out of the encounter looking like the biggest asshole in the world, either.

It all started when his best friend Boyd proposed to his best other friend Erica. They’d all been waiting patiently for him to pop the question for actual years now. (Derek will be forever convinced that the only reason Boyd took so long getting it together was because he enjoyed watching Erica chomping at the bit.)

Everything was fine and good until Erica decided that they needed to go on a family vacation, just the two of them, to really connect before the wedding (despite the fact that they’d been dating since high school, but whatever, no one asked for Derek’s opinion). So Erica, in her infinite wisdom, booked the two of them on a week-long cruise to the Bahamas. Derek was too busy with his work and his own (lack of) love life to pay any attention to the details.

Until he came home one day and there was a kennel, two bowls, and a tote bag full of treats and toys and other doggy necessities sitting innocuously in his kitchen. And, oh yeah, a puppy.

On top of the kennel was a note, written in Erica’s angular script. It read thus:

'Derek! Thanks so much for agreeing to take care of Bell for me while we’re gone. You’re the best! Don’t forget to give puppy her medicine every day. Instructions are on the bottle. No human food! Love you! See you when we get back!'

Derek was pretty sure he hadn’t ever agreed to watch this pup, and he was already sure that the dog would eventually pee on his carpet at least once during its stay here.

Still, she was adorable, and he already knew she was a sweet dog. He sighed to himself, then fetched the leash from the tote bag. “Come on,” he said, releasing the latch on the kennel. “You’re going to pee and poop before I let you run rampant.”

So, really, it was Erica’s fault when, after circling the entire complex and letting the dog sniff everything (she at least peed once, which was something), they came upon Mr. Stilinski—call me ‘Stiles,’ please— struggling to balance a laundry bag, soap, and quarters, all of which looked on the verge of falling over at any moment.

Derek tried to restrain Bell, but he just wasn’t fast enough, and before he could stop her she’d launched herself at the unsuspecting man, catching him in the stomach and sending the both of them (and Stiles’ laundry) tumbling to the ground.

So. Erica’s fault.

Derek apologized, of course, to a laughing Stiles. They introduced themselves, and Derek introduced Bell, explaining that she was only a few months old, and he wasn’t in charge of her training.

“I’m more of a cat person, myself,” he mentioned, assisting Stiles, who was trying to pick up all of his things again.

“Then why would you get a dog?” Stiles asked.

Derek might’ve been too busy staring at Stiles’ ass when he answered distractedly, “I’m only keeping her for a week before I take her back.”

Stiles turned to frown at him, and Derek noticed that his hair had gotten mussed in the tumble. It looked adorable. “Don’t you think that’s kind of irresponsible?” he asked, and Derek was confused.

“What do you mean?” he said. Stiles looked incredibly unimpressed.

“Forget it,” he replied. “It’s not really any of my business.” He bent down to let Bell lick his fingers one last time, and Derek’s eyes immediately strayed back to his ass in those jeans. “Have a nice walk, you two.”

Derek frowned, watching as Stiles continued down the walkway, feeling somewhat off-center. He looked to Bell, who was happily wagging her tail and sniffing the corner of a brick wall. No help there, then.

It was only later, when he and Bell were cuddled up on the couch watching trash TV, that he realized he’d never mentioned that Bell wasn’t actually his dog.

Which would explain why Stiles thought it was irresponsible of him to only be keeping her for a week.

Which made him look like a complete and total ass.

Fuck.

Definitely Erica’s fault.

As Derek sits in his Composition Lab, thinking about all of this, his phone buzzes with a text.

‘Boyd and I are going on a couple’s retreat this weekend. Wanna watch Bell?’

At least one good thing had come from that week: Erica had learned to ask before she surprised him with pet-sitting duties.

‘Sure’ he types back. He hasn’t seen Stiles since that first encounter, keeps looking for him by the laundry machines and in the parking lot. It’s strange that, now that he’s been looking, the guy hasn’t been around at all.

He picks up Bell that evening. All of her things fit in his van, which is a good and efficient vehicle, much as Erica loves to mock him. Bell’s happy to see him, at least. He’s missed her, he’ll admit. She’s as cute as ever—tawny fur and soft, floppy ears. She’s bouncier now than when he’d first seen her, probably because she’d been on painkillers before, for her spay stitches. 

They spend the evening in the dining room. Derek sets up her food and water in the kitchen, and leaves her to amuse herself with her toys for an hour or so. Eventually he moves to the living room, turning on the television and they end up playing tug-o-war on the carpet.

He takes her outside to the small patch of grass in the courtyard long enough to relieve herself (no Stiles, disappointingly enough), and then they retire for the night. Bell cries at him for a good ten minutes after he puts her in her kennel to sleep, so he brings her to bed with him instead.

She’s got actual ‘Puppy-dog Eyes;’ he can’t be blamed for falling victim to her.

The next day he takes her for a brief walk and puts her in her kennel. It’s a Friday, so he’s only got his one History class before he can come home and relax. He promises himself he’ll take Bell for an actual walk when he gets home, to stop himself from feeling guilty about leaving her by herself.

Class goes well. They’re still in the beginning of the semester, so things haven’t gotten too difficult yet. It seems to drag on, however, and Derek finds himself wanting to get home quickly. He feels like maybe he’s forgotten something, but hell if he knows what it is.

When their instructor does finally let them leave, they’re still twenty minutes early. He gets home and drops his backpack on the dining room table; he’ll straighten up later on. Derek grabs Bell’s leash, and she’s already pressed to the gate, waiting on him when he lets her out.

“Hello, Sweet Girl. You wanna go outside? I bet you do.” He keeps talking to her as he clips on her leash, lets her lick his hands and face and neck, enjoying the feeling of being missed this much. Maybe he should look in to getting a pet? Maybe a cat; a low-maintenance animal he could still cuddle with.

They take their time, and Bell finds lots of things to sniff and chase. She pulls on her leash to run after birds and the occasional lizard, but she responds easily to his voice, otherwise.

They’re almost back to his door when he spots a familiar face.

“Stiles?” Bell is pulling at her leash again, trying to reach the other man. He laughs and squats down to pet her.

“Hey, Derek. Hello, Miss Bell. I haven’t seen you two around, lately. I thought you’d given her up after all.”

Derek swallows. Stiles still looks unfairly pretty—big brown eyes staring up at him from the vicinity of Derek’s knees. “She’s not my dog actually. I didn’t think about it last time we talked—Bell’s my best friend’s dog. I just pet-sit when they go out of town.”

Stiles’ smile is pretty wide, and also distracting. Derek is staring—can’t really help himself—at white teeth and plush lips and goddammit he’s been thinking about Stiles for the last three weeks. “Can I get your number, maybe?” Stiles says.

Derek snaps out of his staring. “What?” 

He’s really more eloquent than this. Usually. In his head, at least.

“I was going to ask you to dinner, but I thought I’d start with your number. If that’s okay with you?”

Stiles is definitely laughing at him now, Bell practically in his lap and Derek is decidedly not jealous of her. Like, at all. Because he just got asked out by Stiles, hell yeah! “Yes. Definitely yes. Tomorrow, maybe?”

Stiles hands over his phone, texts Derek his number as well. They agree to meet up the next day at six before Stiles bids them goodbye. He’s going to have to send Erica a fruit basket or something.

But he’s still getting a cat.


End file.
